What´s Pancreatic Cancer?

"Cancer of the pancreas is a genetic disease that is the fifth most common cause of death in both men and women. Pancreatic cancer affects approximately 28,000 Americans each year, or five out of 100,000 people" (Mayo Clinic, 1998). According to physicians at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, "pancreatic cancer is the challenge of the twenty-first century." So, where exactly is the pancreas located in our bodies, and what does it do? The pancreas is a gland found behind the stomach that is shaped somewhat like a fish. The pancreas is about six inches long and less than two inches wide, and it extends across the abdomen. The pancreas consists of two separate glands inside the same organ, the exocrine gland and the

When spreading through the body there are certain stages the cancer has to go through to expand. Stage 0. There is no spread.The cancer is limited to only one cell in the pancreas. Stage I: The cancer is only limited to the pancreas cell, but has moved at least two centimeters. Not yet visible in screening tests. Stage II: The cancer has grown outside the pancreas and may have spread to the lymph nodes. Stage III: The tumor has spread drastically making it now possible for the tests to detect the tumor,increasing the possibility for it expand into the blood vessels or nerves. Stage IV: The cancer has spread to different organs of the body.("Pancreatic Cancer Treatments by Stage") The first place to attack after spreading would be the stomach, then it would expand to the liver. After the cancer reaches these points, it travels to other places in the body. ("Treating Pancreatic Cancer, Based on Extent of the Cancer").

Throughout life, many individuals experience difficulties due to growing up in everyday life. While going in depth of the human life, it is discovered that there are many diseases and disorders that affect humans’ everyday functions. A very popular disease that has traumatically affected the human body is cancer. Cancer is a disease that spreads throughout your body in many ways. The purpose of cancer is to attach to a blood cell in your body and cause a plague within itself, causing the body to initially shut down and die. This disease contains many forms and have many causes to it. However its main goal is to destroy the human body.

Pancreatic Cancer is cancer of an organ in the human body called the pancreas, which is located behind the lower part of the stomach. The function of this organ is to secrete certain essential enzymes to digest food and also secrete hormones to metabolize sugars such as insulin and glucagon (Mayoclinic). People get pancreatic cancer when the cells of the pancreas develop genetic mutations; and these can form in both the exocrine and endocrine cells of the pancreas, but exocrine tumors are more common than endocrine tumors. Because this cancer spreads very quickly throughout the body and the symptoms of the disease don’t usually appear until the cancer is at an advanced stage, it is a leading cause of death

Approximately 20% of pancreatic cancer is found to be operable or resectable. The complete resection of the primary lesion is best treatment for patients with localized pancreatic cancer. However the risk of both local and distal recurrence is high in following resection. In early stage pancreatic cancer the complete resection are associated with considerable morbidity in 40–60% of patients and mortality in less than 3% of patients (Sohn et al., 2000; Winter et al., 2006). Moreover, it takes 2–3 months for complete recovery to a normal quality of life. Although the 5-year survival rate of resected pancreatic cancer is approximately 20% and the median overall survival time is 17–27 months (Winter et al., 2006).

Abdominal ultrasound is sometimes used for quick and cheap first examinations. If there is uncertainty about the diagnosis they may do a biopsy by fine needle aspiration. Pancreatic cancer is usually staged after a ct scan is done. The staging system is four stages,from early to advanced and based on TNM classification.TNM stands for Tumor size, spread to lymph nodes,and metastasis. Based on if surgical removal seems possible,the tumors are divided into three broader categories to help decide treatment. Tumors are resectable, borderline resectable or undetectable. If the disease is still in an early stage(stage 1 or 2) surgical resection of the tumor can be performed. Stage 3 tumors can be borderline resectable where surgery can technically still be done or unresectable where its to locally advanced. Stage 1 cancer is only found in the pancreas. Stage 1 is divided into a and b stages based on tumor size. Stage 1a is when the tumor is no bigger than 2 cm. Stage 1b is when the tumor is bigger than 2 cm. The second stage is when the cancer could have spread to nearby tissue and organs, and may have also spread to the lymph nodes near the

There are different types of cancers. There is Leukemia, Breast cancer, Throat Cancer, and more. Then, theres the cancers that not a lot of people think about. Cancers that exist, but are unknown to most people. They are very rare and not a lot of people have it, but it’s still there affecting people in the same ways, even worse, that any known cancer affects people. One of the is Central Nervous System AT/RT Cancer.

The pancreas is an organ in the abdomen that sits before the spine over the level of the belly button. It performs two important things. First off, it makes insulin, a hormone that regulates glucose levels; secondly, it makes compounds which help separate proteins. The chemicals help digestion by breaking proteins into littler parts so they can be all the more effortlessly digested by the body and utilized for vitality. Proteins leave the pancreas through an arrangement of tubes called "ducts" that associate the pancreas to the digestion systems. The pancreas sits somewhere down in the stomach and is in close vicinity to numerous important structures, for example, the small intestine (the duodenum) and the bile pipes, and in addition critical veins and nerves.

There are many forms of cancer. Breast Cancer, Lung Cancer, Leukemia, and Brain Cancer just to name a few, but the one I am bringing attention to in this essay is Pancreatic Cancer. Pancreatic Cancer is a very aggressive form of cancer and it has many risky factors. Many people do not know those risky factors important information dealing with Pancreatic Cancer and I will explain a few of those important things in this essay. The American Cancer Society and the Cancer Treatment Centers of America gave me a lot of information to help write about this topic.

Pancreatic Cancer is currently one of the deadliest cancers in the world. In the United States alone, Pancreatic Cancer was the fourth leading cause of death among males and third in females causing 19,480 and 24,530 deaths respectively (Siegel et al., 2013). It has a five year survival rate of less than three percent in the United States (Siegel et al., 2013). This is mainly due to late diagnosis, surgical difficulties, aggressive metastases and resistance to apoptosis (Li et al., 2014). Surgical intervention has been seen as the most effective form of treatment for pancreatic tumors but due to late detection, surgical options become difficult to pursue. As a result, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy are the main routes of treatment for patients (Li et al., 2014). Unfortunately not only are these routes very low in efficacy (Li et al., 2014), but have incredibly devastating side effects on the body and the overall quality of life of patients (Love et al., 2006).

Over 30,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year (Pancreatic Cancer 1). The pancreas is a small gland located near the stomach. Treatments for this type of cancer is very limited because it is often only discovered after it has progressed past the point of no return. Once the cancer has metastasized, or spread, the only option is to hope that chemotherapy and radiation can

Therefore, dose and duration of treatment is limited, which in turn limits the amount of normal and tumor cell death. A second mechanism is the suppression of cancer cells for variable periods of time without cell death. This mechanism is referred to as remission. Unfortunately, the cancer can return at any time, and it is sometimes stronger. Here another limitation is introduced. Some tumor cells can develop resistance to a particular chemical agent, or several chemical agents, limiting the types of chemotherapeutic agents available for effective use. The last mechanism is cell differentiation, which helps the immune system learn to recognize and fight tumor cells (1).

Pancreatic cancer is an extremely aggressive tumor and its management remains an intricate challenge in oncology. Despite significant improvements in the field of cancer-related mortality, the progress in pancreatic cancer remains largely dismal. With one of the highest mortality-to-incidence rate ratios, it is the third most common gastrointestinal malignancy and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the western world. Early and frequent metastatic dissemination at diagnosis (40-50%) coupled with resistance to systemic therapies and ineffective local control explains the high mortality rate associated with the disease. Currently, margin-negative surgical resection offers the only means of cure but unfortunately, only 10% to 15%

Pancreatic cancer is known as one of the most aggressive cancer in the current time period. In the United States around 40 000 to 50 000 individuals are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer annually. It is one of the most deadly types of cancer with the 4th highest mortality amongst all cancers. According to (Han Hsi Wong, 2010)an average 5 year survival rate of about 6%. The life span of pancreatic cancer is poor as well with an average life span of around 6months. Reasons as to why this cancer is so deadly is due to the rapid proliferation, late diagnosis and lack of effective treatment options. Current treatment of pancreatic cancer includes whipple procedure or total pancreatectomy which cause many problems as the pancreas is removed. Chemotherapeutic agents include

The pancreas is a digestive organ that lies below the stomach, it is mostly made up of exocrine and endocrine tissues. The exocrine parts form sacs known as Acini, which connect to ducts with empty into the first part of the intestine (The duodenum). Smaller parts of the exocrine glands are dispersed all throughout the pancreas which are known as islets of Langerhans (Anon, Unknown).